Valve mechanism for draft-regulators.



J.- MILTON.

VALVE mncmmsm r012 1mm REGULATORS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 30, 1910.

1 ,O31,458, Patented July 2, 1912.

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J. MILTON.

VALVE MECHANISM FOR DRAFT REGULATORS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 30, I910.

Patented July 2, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J'OI-IN MILTON, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR 0FONE-HALF 'IO EMIL L. SCHARF, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ANDONE-HALF TO GEORGE F. EAMICI-I, OF LOVETTSVILLE, VIRGINIA.

VALVE MECHANISM FOR DRAFT-REGULATORS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 2, 1912.

Application filed July 30, 1910. Serial No. 574,687.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN MILTON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Valve Mechanism for Draft-Regulators, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved construction of draft regulatorwhich forms the subject matter of Patents #590,846, September 28, 1897,#631,528, August 22, 1899, #661,066, November 6, 1900 and #776,608,December 6, 1904, granted to me for draft regulators, particularlyadapted for use in connection with locomotives. In all of these draftregulating devices an air trap is arranged at the forward end of thelocomotive for taking air into the smoke box of said locomotive,whenever the fire box doors are opened and also during excessiveexhausts: the sole purpose of said air trap being the introduction ofair into the smoke box for thepurpose of preventing the disastrouseffects or consequences, recited in detail in the patents hereinbeforereferred to. In the first two patents before mentioned a purelymechanical connection ishad in each instance between the fire box doorand the air trap for the purpose of operating the valve of said air trapin unison with said fire box door, while in the other patents referredto, pneumatically operated means are employed to control the valve ofthe air trap.

Another object of the invention is to provide for the regulation oftension or pressure upon the air inlet valve whereby the rate ofmovement of said valve can be regulated.

This present invention as before stated, relates to this class of draftregulators and 1 more particularly to an improved construction ofpneumatic valve mechanism for controlling the a1r trap valve inconnection with the fire box door, and th1s 1nvent1on has for its objectto provide a valve mechanism which will absolutely prevent the leakvidea valve mechanism in which all dirt, grit, and other foreign matter willbe arrested at the receiving point and prevented from coming in contactwith the Working parts of the mechanism, whereby a much more effectiveand durable device is provided.

Another object of the invention is to provide a valve mechanism havingan inlet and an exhaust valve, both of which can be closedsimultaneously but only one at a time opened thereby preventing a wasteof air and also insuring the proper action of all of the partsoperatively connected with said valve mechanism.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a valve mechanismin which the tenccllency to gum or stick is entirely obviate Anotherobject of the invention is to provide an adjustable compensating thrustor connecting rod whereby the operation of the valves can be efiected bymeans of a crank on top of the fire door pintle and a still furtherobject is to provide for the quick and easy cleaning of the entiremechanism of all foreign matter which may accumulate therein.

With these various objects in view, I have after numerous tests andexperiments provided a valve mechanism which thoroughly carries out allof the objects referred to and consists essentially of a casing having achamber provided with inlet and exhaust ports, said inlet and exhaustports being controlled by means of valves which have a common operatingmeans, which operating means is operatively connected with the fireboiler head over the fire box doors and showing the connection-betweenthe pintles of said doors and the valve mechanism: Flg. 2

.is a top view of the same, certain partsbeing broken away to moreclearly illustrate certain features: Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional viewof the valve mechanism: Fig. 4: is a sectional view of the connecting orthrust rod, a-nd, Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the piston forvoperatingthe valve or door of the-air trap. Fig. 6 is'a side elevation of alocomotive, showing the application of my invention. Fig. 7 isa frontelevation of'the same. Fig. 8 :is a rear elevation.

In'carrying 'outm invention, .I employ a valve casing A, whic issupported upon the head --or face of the boiler in any suitable manner,said valve casing being arranged above the fire-box doors, and withreference to its operating connection. Leading into this valve casing Ais the air inlet pipe A which carries the air under pressure from anysuitable source into the casing, and a second pipe A is also connectedto this casing and through which air is carried to the forward 'endof-the locomotive for-the purpose of operating "the piston hereinafterdescribed, which piston operates the valve or door in the air trap atthe forward end of but also a spring actuated compensating thelocomotive.

Themain object'of my inventionis to providefor'theinflux of air into'thesmoke box whenever the fire box doors are opened and inasmuch as thevalve mechanism which forms the subject matter of this application isfor the purpose of controlling the air under pressure for actuating saidvalve at the forward end it is. obvious that there must be a connectionbetween the fire box doors and the valve mechanism and this I accomplishby providing pintles B which arekeyed or otherwise fixed to the fire boxdoor hinges, each pintle being in turn provided with a disk '13 at itsupper end and each disk is provided with a crankpin B and it will benoted that where there are two'fire doors one-crankpin B is arrangedupon one side of'thelongitudinal line connecting the disks, while theother crank pin occupies a position upon the opposite side of said line.

produced adjacent its ends and in which the crank pins 13 work and it isobvious that from therelative arrangement of the slots, pins and diskscarried by the pintles that as the said pintles are rotated in onedirection, the bar will be caused to shift in one directo the valveoperating lever.

Connecting these disks B is a' horizontal shiftablebar B having slots"13* tion and upon the return nwvement of the pintles, said bar willshift in the reverse direction as most clearly indicated .on the drawingby means of arrows. here there is but one fire door, there is a directconnection through the connecting rod between the .municate to theoperating lever of the valve :mechanismhereinafter referred to,-by meansof a connectlng rod C, whlch is attached .to

the shiftable bar 13 at one end while at the opposite end the connectingrod is attached This connect- .ing rod C is'inthe nature of acompensating arod as the movement of the valve operating lever is notcoextensive with the movement 'of't'he shiftable bar B and in order tocom- :pensate for this difference in movement, I preferably .makethe'connecting rod C in two sections C and C which sections enter asleeve C and the section'C is provided with a head C against which bearsa spring C andbetween this head and the opposite end of the sleeve isanother'springC, the purpose of said springs being to normally hold thesections of'the rod extended to their proper positions. The section C ofthe rod is threaded into'the end of the sleeve so that afine adjustmentcan be'had for the said 'rod in connecting the same with the valveoperating lever. It will thus be seen that I provide not only anadjustable rod with two horizontal bores or passages F and G,respectively and this valve casing also has a vertical lever passage 11,all of said passages, chambers or boresbeing arranged inthe samevertical plane. The chamber D is bored from the bottom upwardly andextends nearly "through the casing and the chamber E is bored entirelythrough the casing as most'clearlyshown and these chambers D and'E areclosed at their lower ends by means ofyscrew plugs D and E respec-'tively. The .air inlet pipe A enters the chamber D aboutmidway itsheight and the air delivery pipe A extends from the chamber E at itsupper end and between the chambers D and E is a port I, controlled bymeans of a lever K, the head of which is ground to fit accurately theseat of the port I and it will be noted that this port I is out ofhorizontal alinement with the air inlet pipe and is preferably arrangedabove said inlet pipe although it could be arranged below if'so desired.

The chamber D I prefer to designate as the receiving chamber and thechamber E the distributing chamber and inasmuch as the port connectingthese chambers is out of horizontal alinement with the inlet pipe, it isobvious that any dust, or dirt or other foreign matter carried into thereceiving chamber would be caught or intercepted and will collect in thebottom thereof and will not pass out through the port I. The accumulateddust or dirt can be quickly and easily removed whenever desired byopening the plug D at the bottom of the chamber D. A port L is arrangedadjacent the upper end of the chamber E and communicates with the boreor passage G in which is located the exhaust valve M, the end of whichis ground to accurately fit the seat of the port L and it will also benoted that the end of the valve is reduced in order to permit theexhaust valve to pass freely to the outlet opening L produced in theside of the casing and communicating with the exhaust port L or rathercommunicating with the passage G adjacent the said port L. The inletvalve K and the exhaust valve M move horizontally back and forth and theinlet valve K is normally held closed by means of a spring K exertingthe pressure upon the rear end thereof, the tension of said spring beingregulated by means of a screw plug K screwed in the endof the valvecasing and bearing upon the coil spring K which in turn, as beforestated, exerts its pressure upon the rear end of the inlet valve K forthe purpose of maintaining it in its closed posit-ion. The inlet andexhaust valves are both operated by means of a single lever N, saidlever beingbifurcated at its upper end and pivotally connected with theexhaust valve as shown and intermediate its end this lever is pivotallyconnected with the inlet valve K, the lever being slotted or bifurcatedand the valves are reduced as shown for the purpose of making the endsconnect. The lower end of this lever N is connected to the section C ofthe connecting rod C so that as the fire box doors are swung open thebar 13 is shifted and this in turn communicates motion to the connectingrod which exerts either a push or pull upon the lever N according to theposition of the valve. The inlet valve is normally closed and theinitial movement of the operating lever N serves to close the exhaustvalve, said lever turning upon a pivot N as a fulcrum and then thecontinued movement of the lever N shifts the fulcrum from the pivot N tothe pivot N and the fulcrum being shifted and the exhaust valve closedthe inlet valve is forced back or opened and the air will immediatelyenter the receiving chamber. pass through the inlet port into thedistributing chamber and out through the outlet pipe A to the valvecontrolling piston mechanism at the forward end of the locomotive. Allof these operations occur simultaneously with the opening of the firebox doors and are brought about by the operation of said doors. When thedoors are closed the reverse movements take place so far as theactuating mechanisms are concerned and consequently the lever endreturns to its normal position and the spring immediately causes theinlet valve to be seated and the exhaust valve opens the exhaust portand consequently the air passes out through the port L and outletopening L into the air.

The hereafter described valve mechanism is the result of numerousexperiments and tests already made wit-l1 the object of insuringsimplicity of parts and efficiency of operation and it is obvious thatthe mechanism consists of very few parts all of which can be. quicklyand easily assembled and it is also obvious that owing to the quick andpositive manner of operating the inlet and exhaust valves there will beno leakage of air and it is also clear that all dust, dirt or otherforeign matter which would ordinarily pass to the mechanismand tend toclog the same, are caught or entrapped in the receiving chamber.

After the air passes into the outlet pipe A it is carried forward to theforward end of the locomotive and introduced into the bottom of acylinder 0 in which works a piston P, the rod P of which is connectedwith the valve of the air trap arranged in the smoke box door and itwill be noted that this piston rod is of a peculiar nature consisting ofa stub P rigidly attached to the piston proper and working in the recessend of the rod P. A coil spring P' surrounding the rod and held betweenthe piston and the upper end of the cylinder-O, the purpose of saidconstruction being to permit the valve of the air trap to automaticallyopen whenever an excessive exhaust in the smoke box occurs, withoutdisturbing the valve operating mechanism which is attached to the boilerhead and operated from the fire box doors. When the fire box doors areclosed, the parts assume their normal positions as shown in Fig. 3, andthe com pressed air contained within the cylinder 0 and connecting pipeA is permitted to exhaust through the exhaust opening L.

To illustrate the application of my invention, I have shown the sameapplied to a locomotive 20, as indicated in Figs. 6, 7, and 8. The airpipe A is shown as connected to the cylinder 0, and the latter isconnectedby a:link21, with a gate 22, pivoted in a short flue 28,arranged in the front of the boiler.

From the above'descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings,it

will be seen that I provide a simple and eflicient construction of airvalve mechanism bymeans of which all of the objects hereinbefo-rereferred to are accomplished.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In combination, a valve comprising a casing provided with an airinlet chamber and an air outlet chamber, said casing having a passagecommunicating with said air inlet and outlet chambers and a port leadingfrom the air outlet chamber, an inletvalve mounted in the casing andstraddling the air inlet chamber to controlthe passage,

an exhaust valve mounted in the casing to control the exhaust port, alever pivoted to the inlet valve and extending beyond the casing in onedirection and to the-exhaust port in the opposite direction, a pivotalco-n nection between the exhaust port and the lever, aboiler providedwith a door at one end and an opening at the opposite end, a connectionbetween the door and the lever, whereby when said door is opened thelever will be operated to open the passage and close the exhaust port, agate cooperating with the opening in theboiler, a valve pivoted to thegate, means for normally seating the valve and closing the gate, a pipecommunicatingwith the valve and the air outlet opening in the casing topermit air to operate the valve and open the gate, when the door of theboiler is opened, and means cooperating with the valve to permit thegate to open independently of the door by excessix e draft in theboiler.

2. In combination, aboiler provided with a fuel door and an opening, acasing adjacent the fueldoor, said casing having an inlet chamber andoutlet chamber connected tion to operate the inlet valve to close theinlet port and upon further movement operate the exhaust valve to openthe exhaust port, a connection between the door and the lever to operatethe latter whenthe door is 1no-ved, a gate cooperating with the-openingin the boiler, a valve connected'to the gate,

nected therewith, said casing having two.

vertical bores and two horizontal bores all in the same vertical plane,said vertical'bores providing receiving and distributing chambers andthe horizontal bores providing valve passages, one of said chambersbeing provided with an exhaust port, the casing having a passage betweenthe inlet and'outlet chamber, an inlet in one of the valve passagestocontrol the passage between the inlet and outlet chambers, an exhaustvalve in the other valve passage to control the exhaustport, and anoperating lever connected a spring for normally closing said inletvalve, Eat one end with the exhaust valve and also fconnected atits endswith the inlet valve.

4. A valve mechanism comprising a casing having air inlet and outletpipes connected therewith, said casing having two vertical bores and twohorizontal bores all in the same vertical plane, said vertical boresproviding receiving and distributing chambers, and the horizontal boresproviding valve passages, one of said chambers being provided with anexhaust port, the casing having a passage between the inlet and outletchambers, an inlet in one of the valve passages to control the passagebetween the inlet and outlet chambers, an exhaust valve in the othervalve passage to control the exhaust port, an operating lever connectedat one end with the exhaust valve and also connected intermediate itsends with the inlet valve,

.and means for normally holding the inlet valve closed.

5. A valve mechanism comprising a casing having inlet and outlet pipesconnected therewith, said casing having two vertical bores and twohorizontal bores and a vertical lever recess all in the same verticalplane,

said vertical bores providing receiving and -d1str1but1ng chambers andhavlng plugs in their lower ends, the/horizontal bores providing valvepassages, one of SELldChZLIHbGIS being provided with inlet and exhaustports, valves arranged 1n the passages for controlling the lnlet andexhaust ports, means valve casing adjacent the doors, said casing havinga chamber into which leads a pipe, a

second chamber formed in the casing and with which communicates anoutlet pipe, there being a port formed between the two chambers, a valvein the casing for controlling said port, means for automatically closingsaid valve, the casing having an exhaust port communicating with thesecond mentioned chamber, an exhaust valve in the easing to cooperatewith the exhaust port, a lever pivoted to the exhaust port and the firstmentioned valve and extending beyond the casing, a rod connected to thepintles of the fuel doors, a sectional connection between the lever andthe connecting rod comprising a sleeve on one section, a headed rod onthe other section, springs interposed between the head rod and the endsof the sleeve, a gate for the draft opening, and a valve in the outletpipe for operating the gate when the fuel doors are opened.

7 In combination, a boiler provided with a draft opening at its frontend, a gate cooperatin with said draft opening, a cylinder, a plston inthe cylinder, a connection between the piston and said gate, fuel doorshaving pintles on the boiler, a longitudinal shiftable bar connectingthe pintles of said doors, a valve casing adjacent the fuel doors, saidcasing having inlet and exhaustports, valves controlling the inlet andexhaust ports, a pipe communicating with the exhaust port and the gatevalve, a lever connected with said inlet and exhaust valves andextending from the casing, a connecting rod pivoted to the shiftable barand the lever whereby when the doors are opened the valves will beoperated and the piston will be moved and the gate opened.

8. In combination, a boiler formed at its front end with a draftopening, agate therefor, a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, aconnection between the piston and the gate, hinged fuel doors on theboiler, disks on the pintles of the doors, each disk having a crank pin,a valve casing having an inlet and an outlet chamber and inlet andexhaust ports, a pipe communicating with the outlet chamber and thecylinder, a valve controllin the inlet port, an exhaust valve forcontrol ing the exhaust port, a lever pivotally connected to the inletand exhaust valves, a bar having slots with which the crank pins engage,and a connecting rod connected at one end to the bar and at its oppositeend to the lever.

9. In combination, a boiler formed at one end with a draft opening, agate therefor, a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, a connectionbetween'the piston and the gate, movable fuel doors on the boiler, a.valve casing having an inlet and an outlet chamher and inlet and exhaustports, a pipe communicating with the outlet chamber and the cylinder, avalve controlling the inlet port, an exhaust valve for controlling theexhaust port, a lever pivotally connected to the inlet and exhaustvalves, and a connection be tween the lever and the doors whereby whenthe door is opened the valves will be operated to admit pressure to theoutlet cham- "ber and operate the piston.

10. In combination, a boiler formed at one end with a draft opening, agate therefor, a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, a connectionbetween the piston and the gate, means in the cylinder for permittingthe gate to open when excessive draft occurs in the boiler, movable fueldoors on the boiler, a valve casing having an inlet and an outletchamber and inlet and exhaust ports, a pipe communicating with outletchamber and the cylinder, a valve controlling the inlet port, an exhaustvalve for controlling the exhaust port, a lever pivotally connected tothe inlet and exhaust valves, and a connection between the lever and thedoors, whereby when 7 JOHN MILTON.

Witnesses E. B. MGBATH, REA ALBRIGHT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

